Homeless soccer stars to tackle prejudice

AN all-Ireland soccer team was having a final kick-about yesterday as it prepared to jet off to Sweden for the Homeless World Cup.

Far from the glitz and the glamour of more conventional international championships, the competition aims to highlight the issue of homelessness and poverty worldwide.

The Ireland squad comprises 20 players from Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Belfast, all of whom are homeless or living in hostels. For the majority, as they board the plane today it will be their first time abroad.

Team coach Sean Kavanagh said the idea was to use sport to build up confidence and self-esteem. “It’s amazing to see them come off the pitch,” he said. “Many have been in rehab and this gives them the incentive to stay clean and to keep fit.

“We hope the game acts as a catalyst, to give them more self-belief which will encourage them to move forward.”

While it may be in a different league to the World Cup, where the focus is on the millionaires of the modern game, the competition is still tough.

Mr Kavanagh said the team had trained hard. “The competition is amazing, the standard is very, very high,” he added. “The whole idea is to forget all the players are homeless, which is very easy to do out there in the middle of it all.”

For the next 10 days the team, aged between 19 and 32, will be representing Ireland and the notion of being second class citizens will be swept away.

The squad has been kitted out with brand new suits and strips. They will walk onto the pitch in Gothenburg accompanied by the Irish flag, sing the national anthem and hear their names echo round the stadium.

Team coach Mick Pender said the game was perfect for helping develop closer links between people who have felt isolated and alone before.

“It is important that there be something positive for those who have fallen behind,” he said. “The team will live out every boyhood dream when they put on the green of Ireland and represent their country.”

The players are hopeful that Ireland could actually win its first World Cup. “We saw Greece win Euro 2004 so anything’s possible,” joked Mr Kavanagh. The competition was launched last year and saw 18 countries enter teams of homeless players whose only income came from selling street papers.

It was a huge success with more than 20,000 people turning out to watch 109 games in Graz, Austria.

Some 28 countries will take part in this year’s event which begins on Sunday, July 25, and runs until August 1.